It’s nice when a film chooses not to overstay its welcome, as writer-director Giuseppe Garau understands in The Accident. For 65 minutes, Garau drops viewers in on Marcella (Giulia Mazzarino), a single mother whose life is falling apart. Over the course of one day where she’s late picking her daughter up from school, she gets fired by her boss (who also happens to be the father of her ex and grandfather to her child), gets into a minor car crash with her daughter, and ends up losing custody. By using a clever formal gimmick that limits events to a single perspective, The Accident makes for a kinetic, creative, surprisingly funny experience as we watch Marcella not so much climb her way back to the top as drag herself through the mud, one humiliation to another, just to come out the other side.
That formal gimmick doesn’t take long...
That formal gimmick doesn’t take long...
- 1/19/2024
- by C.J. Prince
- The Film Stage
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
The very act of making a top ten list each year is an absurd yet worthwhile exercise, as frustrating as it is always valuable to reflect on the overall state of cinema in a given year, an art I’ve dedicated much of my adult life to. While I’m about to complain about the process I would be offended if my editors here at The Film Stage didn’t ask me to contribute. As always, thanks Jordan for keeping me around for another year!
For some, life is about the ones that got away––I feel this acutely as I almost passed on Claire Simon’s Our Body, a rewarding documentary with a final scene that nearly broke me emotionally––for the very reason that I...
The very act of making a top ten list each year is an absurd yet worthwhile exercise, as frustrating as it is always valuable to reflect on the overall state of cinema in a given year, an art I’ve dedicated much of my adult life to. While I’m about to complain about the process I would be offended if my editors here at The Film Stage didn’t ask me to contribute. As always, thanks Jordan for keeping me around for another year!
For some, life is about the ones that got away––I feel this acutely as I almost passed on Claire Simon’s Our Body, a rewarding documentary with a final scene that nearly broke me emotionally––for the very reason that I...
- 1/5/2024
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.
List of journalists who have been killed.
The below is of lesser note:
Best First Watches:
Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...
In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.
List of journalists who have been killed.
The below is of lesser note:
Best First Watches:
Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...
- 1/3/2024
- by Soham Gadre
- The Film Stage
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
The greatest year in cinema since the monumental offerings of 2007––a transformative year that set the seeds for this very site to come into existence––2023 offered a resounding affirmative that indeed the medium is alive and well: auteurs flexing what they do best, newcomers providing a hopeful voice for the future of filmmaking, along with a plethora of worthwhile offers. Along with my personal favorites when it came to U.S. releases, two films also premiered that would’ve topped this list had they come out in 2023: Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast and Víctor Erice’s still-shockingly-undistributed Close Your Eyes.
While they didn’t make the top 15 cut below, I must make mention for the most essential, one-and-done viewing of the year with De Humani Corporis...
The greatest year in cinema since the monumental offerings of 2007––a transformative year that set the seeds for this very site to come into existence––2023 offered a resounding affirmative that indeed the medium is alive and well: auteurs flexing what they do best, newcomers providing a hopeful voice for the future of filmmaking, along with a plethora of worthwhile offers. Along with my personal favorites when it came to U.S. releases, two films also premiered that would’ve topped this list had they come out in 2023: Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast and Víctor Erice’s still-shockingly-undistributed Close Your Eyes.
While they didn’t make the top 15 cut below, I must make mention for the most essential, one-and-done viewing of the year with De Humani Corporis...
- 12/25/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
For our most comprehensive year-end feature we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2023. We’ve asked contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions––some of those personal selections will be shared in coming weeks––and from tallied votes has this top 50 been assembled.
Without further ado, check out our rundown of 2023 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to watch many of the below picks, both on streaming and in theaters), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2024.
50. Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli)
Kristoffer Borgli’s first Norwegian feature is a work of disgusting, hilarious, horrifying genius. Signe (played brilliantly by Kristine Kujath Thorp) is an early-20s narcissist who, galled by the success of her equally self-centered boyfriend, spirals into full-on Munchausen syndrome. As timely as it is hard to watch, Sick of Myself doesn’t...
Without further ado, check out our rundown of 2023 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to watch many of the below picks, both on streaming and in theaters), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2024.
50. Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli)
Kristoffer Borgli’s first Norwegian feature is a work of disgusting, hilarious, horrifying genius. Signe (played brilliantly by Kristine Kujath Thorp) is an early-20s narcissist who, galled by the success of her equally self-centered boyfriend, spirals into full-on Munchausen syndrome. As timely as it is hard to watch, Sick of Myself doesn’t...
- 12/14/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
As the arthouse cinema market continues to regain its footing, the list of what may be considered an overlooked film could be quite vast, depending on one’s metrics. For our yearly feature highlighting the 50 best films you might have missed––arriving before our overall top 50 films––we’ve sought to dig deep to find the gems that deserved more attention upon their initial release and have mostly been left out of year-end conversations. Hopefully, with many widely available on a variety of streaming platforms, they will begin to find an expanded audience.
While many documentaries would qualify for this list, we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. Check out the list below, as presented in alphabetical order.
The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)
The rare case of a Movie About Nothing whose languorous attitudes collect a world of concern: desire against reality,...
While many documentaries would qualify for this list, we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. Check out the list below, as presented in alphabetical order.
The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)
The rare case of a Movie About Nothing whose languorous attitudes collect a world of concern: desire against reality,...
- 12/12/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Though we aim to discuss a wide breadth of films each year, few things give us more pleasure than the arrival of bold, new voices. It’s why we venture to festivals and pore over a variety of different features that might bring to light some emerging talent. This year was an especially notable time for new directors making their stamp, and we’re highlighting the handful of 2023 debuts that most impressed us.
Below one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres, and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
Raven Jackson’s directorial debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is a distillation of cinema to its purest form, a stunning patchwork of experience and memory. Daring in its formal gambits but universal for how it explores humanity’s connection with nature,...
Below one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres, and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
Raven Jackson’s directorial debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is a distillation of cinema to its purest form, a stunning patchwork of experience and memory. Daring in its formal gambits but universal for how it explores humanity’s connection with nature,...
- 11/29/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Sight and Sound magazine listed only two Australian features among its 50 best films of 2022. One was Baz Luhrmann’s 'Elvis', and the other a self-financed feature debut, 'The Plains'. Since launching on Mubi, Letterboxd reviews variously describe it as “the exact kind of unflinching, experimental but still accessible film that Screen Australia should be funding” and “maybe the best Australian film of the century”.
The post David Easteal’s ‘The Plains’ proves an Aussie indie breakout on the world stage appeared first on If Magazine.
The post David Easteal’s ‘The Plains’ proves an Aussie indie breakout on the world stage appeared first on If Magazine.
- 7/19/2023
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Country Gold (Mickey Reece)
The cost of fame sits in the living room wondering aloud whether dad will be home for Christmas. Why these two young boys’ voices have been deepened to sound like they’re 40-year-old drunks slurring through a bender is beyond me (an assumption of it being a dream or game is squashed once mom enters without the effect being called out), but their words have meaning. Troyal’s (Mickey Reece channeling Garth Brooks) star has risen to unimaginable heights and he’s embraced it to the point where his “good ol’ boy” demeanor can’t quite hide the growing ego beneath a cowboy hat. While Jamie (Leah N.H. Philpott) tries toeing the line of admiring his accomplishments and...
Country Gold (Mickey Reece)
The cost of fame sits in the living room wondering aloud whether dad will be home for Christmas. Why these two young boys’ voices have been deepened to sound like they’re 40-year-old drunks slurring through a bender is beyond me (an assumption of it being a dream or game is squashed once mom enters without the effect being called out), but their words have meaning. Troyal’s (Mickey Reece channeling Garth Brooks) star has risen to unimaginable heights and he’s embraced it to the point where his “good ol’ boy” demeanor can’t quite hide the growing ego beneath a cowboy hat. While Jamie (Leah N.H. Philpott) tries toeing the line of admiring his accomplishments and...
- 4/14/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
David Easteal's The Plains is now showing exclusively on Mubi starting April 12, 2023, in most countries in the series Debuts.Andrew and I met while working together some years ago at a legal center in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. We found out we lived near each other, and Andrew started to drive me home. Through our discussions, and in hearing Andrew’s calls to his mother and wife Cheri, I learned about his life and a friendship developed between us. The sky and light can be spectacular in Melbourne at certain times of the year, particularly the westward sky at the end of the day. I recall being very struck by the visual contrast between the thousands of people moving together on the road, their alienation from each other, and the great celestial beauty above. Our commutes home during that time formed the basis for the film.I tend...
- 4/12/2023
- MUBI
The calm before summer movie season usually delivers some of the year’s most interesting movies––artistic gambles to try reaching audiences before blockbusters take over the multiplexes––and this April is no different. From some of the best films we saw on the festival circuit last year to a few promising 2023 premieres, we’ve rounded up 15 films worth seeking out in what amounts to a major month.
15. Air (Ben Affleck; April 5)
Returning to the director’s chair for the first time in seven years, following 2016’s Live by Night, Ben Affleck’s latest feature is immersed in the world of sports marketing. Air, from a Black List script by Alex Convery, follows the real-life story of Nike’s quest in signing Michael Jordan. Led by Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro, who would go on to sign the greatest athlete of all time, the film is a fairly rousing crowd-pleaser...
15. Air (Ben Affleck; April 5)
Returning to the director’s chair for the first time in seven years, following 2016’s Live by Night, Ben Affleck’s latest feature is immersed in the world of sports marketing. Air, from a Black List script by Alex Convery, follows the real-life story of Nike’s quest in signing Michael Jordan. Led by Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro, who would go on to sign the greatest athlete of all time, the film is a fairly rousing crowd-pleaser...
- 4/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including David Easteal’s The Plains (one of the best films we saw on the festival circuit last year), Christophe Honoré’s Winter Boy, Koji Fukada’s 10-part series The Real Thing, Bruce Labruce’s Saint-Narcisse, and more.
Additional highlights include three films by Joan Micklin Silver, additions to their Lars von Trier series, Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, and more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
April 1 – Henry Fool, directed by Hal Hartley
April 2 – Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman
April 3 – The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers, directed by Helke Sander | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema
April 4 – Saint-Narcisse, directed by Bruce Labruce
April 5 – Jaime Francisco, directed by Javier Rodríguez | Brief Encounters
April 6 – Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin...
Additional highlights include three films by Joan Micklin Silver, additions to their Lars von Trier series, Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, and more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
April 1 – Henry Fool, directed by Hal Hartley
April 2 – Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman
April 3 – The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers, directed by Helke Sander | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema
April 4 – Saint-Narcisse, directed by Bruce Labruce
April 5 – Jaime Francisco, directed by Javier Rodríguez | Brief Encounters
April 6 – Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin...
- 3/23/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2022, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
Just hours prior a friend asked what’s on my best-of-2022 list. (This sounds made-up; I promise it actually happened.) I could run it down with exacting detail, each entry signaling a postmark—personal, temporal, geographic, formal—in the year before one escaped me. Absolutely, entirely, gone as if never seen. Consulting my Notes app let all attendant thoughts and feelings rush back—where and when seen, fulfilled or complicated desires, fruitful conversations (including with its director) and strong recommendations all the time since.
It is a great film. Have I thought about it more than Tár (stylized as TÁR), which but minutes prior I’d asked if my companion saw? Clearly not. Tár (stylized as TÁR) also doesn’t appear here. Much as I liked Todd Field...
Just hours prior a friend asked what’s on my best-of-2022 list. (This sounds made-up; I promise it actually happened.) I could run it down with exacting detail, each entry signaling a postmark—personal, temporal, geographic, formal—in the year before one escaped me. Absolutely, entirely, gone as if never seen. Consulting my Notes app let all attendant thoughts and feelings rush back—where and when seen, fulfilled or complicated desires, fruitful conversations (including with its director) and strong recommendations all the time since.
It is a great film. Have I thought about it more than Tár (stylized as TÁR), which but minutes prior I’d asked if my companion saw? Clearly not. Tár (stylized as TÁR) also doesn’t appear here. Much as I liked Todd Field...
- 1/12/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After highlighting the most overlooked films of 2022 and our overall favorites of 2022, today we put our spotlight on those that need a home in the first place: movies we loved on the festival circuit—from Berlinale, Sundance, TIFF, NYFF, Rotterdam, and beyond—still seeking U.S. distribution.
We hope that highlighting these titles spurs some distributor interest and a forthcoming release; we’ll be sharing any updates in this regard on Twitter, so make sure to follow us there. As we move into 2023, one can also track our upcoming festival coverage here.
The Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin)
In the heat of late summer, San Michele al Tagliamento is a humid emulsion of corn fields, cypress trees, and silent streets. Sitting along the border between Veneto and Friuli, in the northeast of Italy, it’s a rural town in which nothing ever happens, everyone knows each other, and...
We hope that highlighting these titles spurs some distributor interest and a forthcoming release; we’ll be sharing any updates in this regard on Twitter, so make sure to follow us there. As we move into 2023, one can also track our upcoming festival coverage here.
The Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin)
In the heat of late summer, San Michele al Tagliamento is a humid emulsion of corn fields, cypress trees, and silent streets. Sitting along the border between Veneto and Friuli, in the northeast of Italy, it’s a rural town in which nothing ever happens, everyone knows each other, and...
- 1/2/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
For our most comprehensive year-end feature we’re providing a cumulative look at The Film Stage’s favorite films of 2022. We’ve asked contributors to compile ten-best lists with five honorable mentions—a selection of those personal lists will be shared in coming days—and from tallied votes has a top 50 been assembled.
Without further ado, check out our rundown of 2022 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2023.
50. A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)
Payal Kapadia’s breakthrough work is a quasi-documentary with something of Chris Marker’s postmodern essay films, following a young film school student, “L,” who experiences a romantic and political coming-of-age amidst the anti-democratic changes wrought in Modi’s India. Yet it boldly eschews the informational and concrete approach of many political documentaries, allowing us a filmic...
Without further ado, check out our rundown of 2022 below, our ongoing year-end coverage here (including where to stream many of the below picks), and return in the coming weeks as we look towards 2023.
50. A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)
Payal Kapadia’s breakthrough work is a quasi-documentary with something of Chris Marker’s postmodern essay films, following a young film school student, “L,” who experiences a romantic and political coming-of-age amidst the anti-democratic changes wrought in Modi’s India. Yet it boldly eschews the informational and concrete approach of many political documentaries, allowing us a filmic...
- 12/22/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
As various critics groups and awards bodies dole out their top films of the year, it can be hard to parse which ones are actually worth paying attention to. One such list has arrived today with Film Comment’s annual end-of-year survey. Revealed at a special live talk last night, in an unexpected but welcome surprise, David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future topped the list, which also included Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo, Charlotte Wells’s Aftersun, two by Hong Sangsoo, and more. They also revealed their top undistributed films list, which included David Easteal’s The Plains, Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, and Laura Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen.
“That the winner of this year’s poll is a strange, gory, apocalyptic film about a future where art and humanity are both on the precipice of extinction is a striking reflection of what we’re seeking from cinema in 2022,” said Film...
“That the winner of this year’s poll is a strange, gory, apocalyptic film about a future where art and humanity are both on the precipice of extinction is a striking reflection of what we’re seeking from cinema in 2022,” said Film...
- 12/15/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
France’s Cnc Sets Carbon Footprint Stipulations In Return For Support
France’s National Cinema Centre (Cnc) is set to become one of the first state film and TV bodies to attach green stipulations to its funding. As of March 31, 2023, producers applying for funds across all genres and formats will have to include provisional and final carbon audits for the works when they make the application, the body announced on Wednesday.
The measure, which was approved by the Cnc board this week, is a major pole of its Plan Action! aimed at encouraging France’s audiovisual sector to make the transition towards ecologically sustainable practices and forms of energy. The body said data from the audits would be used for in-house studies assessing the environmental impact of film and TV productions, as well as to devise ways to support the sector as its takes on the challenge of embracing more sustainable practices.
France’s National Cinema Centre (Cnc) is set to become one of the first state film and TV bodies to attach green stipulations to its funding. As of March 31, 2023, producers applying for funds across all genres and formats will have to include provisional and final carbon audits for the works when they make the application, the body announced on Wednesday.
The measure, which was approved by the Cnc board this week, is a major pole of its Plan Action! aimed at encouraging France’s audiovisual sector to make the transition towards ecologically sustainable practices and forms of energy. The body said data from the audits would be used for in-house studies assessing the environmental impact of film and TV productions, as well as to devise ways to support the sector as its takes on the challenge of embracing more sustainable practices.
- 10/5/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Alena Lodkina’s first feature, “Strange Colours” (2017) took her deep into the Australian outback, to the rough-as-guts opal-mining town of Lightning Ridge, before bringing her to the Venice Film Festival, where the film premiered. It augured a distinctive new mood in Australian cinema – understated but keenly observed; a little sinister – as represented in recent editions of Rotterdam (David Easteal’s “The Plains”; James Vaughan’s “Friends & Strangers”) and Cannes (Thom Wright’s “The Stranger”).
Her second feature, produced by Kate Laurie at Arenamedia and funded by Screen Australia, VicScreen, the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund, Sbs, and Orange Entertainment, takes its bow at the 75th Locarno Film Festival.
In the evasively-titled “Petrol,” the Russian-born filmmaker turns her gaze towards the city she calls home: the film ascribes a certain kind of decadent mystique to Melbourne, where Lodkina has lived for the last 10 years. “You don’t see cities portrayed in Australia that much,...
Her second feature, produced by Kate Laurie at Arenamedia and funded by Screen Australia, VicScreen, the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund, Sbs, and Orange Entertainment, takes its bow at the 75th Locarno Film Festival.
In the evasively-titled “Petrol,” the Russian-born filmmaker turns her gaze towards the city she calls home: the film ascribes a certain kind of decadent mystique to Melbourne, where Lodkina has lived for the last 10 years. “You don’t see cities portrayed in Australia that much,...
- 8/9/2022
- by Sona Karapoghosyan and Keva York
- Variety Film + TV
I met Dn alum David Easteal at an event at the Bánnfy Castle, around half an hour’s drive (in good traffic) from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where I was covering the Transylvanian International Film Festival. We got to talking, and after I mentioned Directors Notes, he mentioned it had been over ten years since we’d featured his short film The Father on the Dn podcast. With his remarkable debut feature The Plains playing in the festival’s What’s Up Doc section, it was the perfect excuse to sit down with him for a highly belated follow-up interview. Shot over the course of a year, The Plains is a documentary/fiction hybrid that boasts a simple premise: legal worker Andrew Rakowski drives home every day from the suburbs of Melbourne into the centre. Usually stuck in dreadful traffic, he calls his mother and wife along the way; sometimes he picks up David himself.
- 6/30/2022
- by Redmond Bacon
- Directors Notes
In this amazing work of art, we sit behind a middle-aged lawyer on his commute as he calls his family, listens to radio and gives a lift to a colleague
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Many strange thoughts ping-ponged around my mind while watching David Easteal’s three-hour drama The Plains, despite nothing remotely strange occurring during it. Based in the back of a car for almost the entirety of its very hefty running time, the film captures a series of work-to-home commutes for a middle-aged lawyer, Andrew (Andrew Rakowski), who has a familiar routine: calling his mother and wife; listening to talkback radio; sitting in silence; or chatting to a colleague who he sometimes gives a lift home.
Sound interesting? Of course not. But this extraordinarily mundane film – a combination of words I’m fairly certain I’ve never used before – is a tremendous achievement and,...
Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email and listen to our podcast
Many strange thoughts ping-ponged around my mind while watching David Easteal’s three-hour drama The Plains, despite nothing remotely strange occurring during it. Based in the back of a car for almost the entirety of its very hefty running time, the film captures a series of work-to-home commutes for a middle-aged lawyer, Andrew (Andrew Rakowski), who has a familiar routine: calling his mother and wife; listening to talkback radio; sitting in silence; or chatting to a colleague who he sometimes gives a lift home.
Sound interesting? Of course not. But this extraordinarily mundane film – a combination of words I’m fairly certain I’ve never used before – is a tremendous achievement and,...
- 6/9/2022
- by Luke Buckmaster
- The Guardian - Film News
Titles include Sundance Jury prize winner ‘Utama’
Transilvania International Film Festival has unveiled the 12 films that will screen in its official competition.
Each title competing for the Transilvania Trophy will receive its Romanian premiere at the 21st edition of the festival, which is set to take place in the city of Cluj-Napoca.
The line-up features Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama, a Bolivian drama about an indigenous couple trying to survive a drought, which took home the Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival early this year.
Other titles include the directorial debut by French filmmaker Vincent Maël Cardona - Magentic Beats.
Transilvania International Film Festival has unveiled the 12 films that will screen in its official competition.
Each title competing for the Transilvania Trophy will receive its Romanian premiere at the 21st edition of the festival, which is set to take place in the city of Cluj-Napoca.
The line-up features Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Utama, a Bolivian drama about an indigenous couple trying to survive a drought, which took home the Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival early this year.
Other titles include the directorial debut by French filmmaker Vincent Maël Cardona - Magentic Beats.
- 5/19/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Film comprises eight shorts about resilience and survival.
The world premiere of anthology film We Are Still Here will open the 69th Sydney Film Festival on June 8. It comprises eight stories by and about First Nations people.
The Australian-New Zealand co-production includes the work of 10 directors: Australians Beck Cole, Danielle MacLean, Tracey Rigney and Dena Curtis; and New Zealanders Tim Worrall, Richard Curtis, Renae Maihi, Miki Magasiva, Chantelle Burgoyn and Mario Gaoa.
The many First Nations actors involved include Clarence Ryan, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Leonie Whyman and Calvin Tuteao.
No international sales agent is yet attached to the film, which is...
The world premiere of anthology film We Are Still Here will open the 69th Sydney Film Festival on June 8. It comprises eight stories by and about First Nations people.
The Australian-New Zealand co-production includes the work of 10 directors: Australians Beck Cole, Danielle MacLean, Tracey Rigney and Dena Curtis; and New Zealanders Tim Worrall, Richard Curtis, Renae Maihi, Miki Magasiva, Chantelle Burgoyn and Mario Gaoa.
The many First Nations actors involved include Clarence Ryan, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Leonie Whyman and Calvin Tuteao.
No international sales agent is yet attached to the film, which is...
- 5/4/2022
- by Sandy George
- ScreenDaily
It’s 5 p.m. and the day tumbles white with clouds. A car sneaks out of a parking lot and into traffic. The man at the wheel is alone. He turns off the radio and makes two phone calls: one to his old mother—”Hello Mutti, it’s Buschi”—and one to his wife. We listen to him chat as the outskirts of Melbourne flash by in a long caravan of office buildings and highway bridges. We sit behind him, in the car; all we see of his face is a slanted reflection in the rearview mirror. His name is Andrew (Andrew Rakowski), a lawyer pushing 60. For the past 13 years this has been his commute; for the next three hours The Plains keeps us in the backseat of his Hyundai as he drives home from work. This, in a nutshell, is all there is to David Easteal’s feature debut.
- 2/4/2022
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Lei Lei, Yamasaki Juichiro, David Easteal, Renaud Després-Larose and Ana Tapia Rousiouk spoke with Vanja Kaludjercic.
Five directors with four films in the Tiger competition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) discussed the intensely personal nature of their stories and the visual arts used to transfer them onto the screen during this edition’s first live online daily press conference on Saturday (January 29).
Filmmakers Lei Lei, Yamasaki Juichiro, David Easteal, Renaud Després-Larose and Ana Tapia Rousiouk revealed how they made sense of personal experiences before expressing them through various visual mediums including animation, sound and 16mm footage during the...
Five directors with four films in the Tiger competition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) discussed the intensely personal nature of their stories and the visual arts used to transfer them onto the screen during this edition’s first live online daily press conference on Saturday (January 29).
Filmmakers Lei Lei, Yamasaki Juichiro, David Easteal, Renaud Després-Larose and Ana Tapia Rousiouk revealed how they made sense of personal experiences before expressing them through various visual mediums including animation, sound and 16mm footage during the...
- 2/1/2022
- by Alina Trabattoni
- ScreenDaily
The “dead time” of the daily commute comes alive in “The Plains,” an absorbing documentary-drama hybrid that places viewers in the car of a middle-aged Melbourne lawyer during his drive home from work during the course of a year. Skilfully creating an engaging and likable protagonist without fully showing his face until the three-hour running time has all but elapsed, David Easteal’s first feature is a thematically rich and quietly compelling portrait of a man at the crossroads. Although an extremely difficult commercial path lies ahead, this epic-length existentialist road movie should enjoy a strong festival run following its world premiere at Rotterdam.
Occasionally punctuated by views of flat, treeless plains that give the film its title and shed light on the central character’s life choices and relationships, “The Plains” is essentially a single-location drama. Almost the entire film is seen through the lens of a camera fixed...
Occasionally punctuated by views of flat, treeless plains that give the film its title and shed light on the central character’s life choices and relationships, “The Plains” is essentially a single-location drama. Almost the entire film is seen through the lens of a camera fixed...
- 1/31/2022
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
Answering the SunInternational Film Festival Rotterdam have announced the full lineup for their "scaled-down" 51st edition, which will take place online between January 26 — February 6. As part of a full, nationwide lockdown, cinemas will remain closed in the Netherlands until at least 14 January. Tiger COMPETITIONAchrome (Maria Ignatenko)The Cloud Messenger (Rahat Mahajan)The Child (Marguerite de Hillerin/Félix Dutilloy-Liégeois)Eami (Paz Encina)Excess Will Save Us (Morgane Dziurla-Petit)Kafka for Kids (Roee Rosen)Malintzin 17 (Mara Polgovsky/Eugenio Polgovsky)Met mes (Sam de Jong)The Plains (David Easteal)Proyecto Fantasma (Roberto Doveris)Le rêve et la radio (Renaud Després-Larose/Ana Tapia Rousiouk)Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish (Lei Lei)To Love Again (Gao Linyang)Yamabuki (Juichiro Yamasaki)Big Screen COMPETITIONAssault (Adilkhan Yerzhanov)Broadway (Christos Massalas)Third Grade (Jacques Doillon)Daryn’s Gym (Brett Michael Innes)Drifting Petals (Clara Law)The Harbour (Rajeev Ravi)The Island (Anca Damian)Kung Fu Zohra (Mabrouk El Mechri...
- 1/7/2022
- MUBI
This year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the 14 films selected for its flagship Tiger Competition. Scroll down for the full list.
The selection is typically globe-trotting, with features ranging from Chile to China, Sweden to Israel, and Mexico to India. A jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, plus two special jury awards. On the jury are: Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Gust Van den Berghe, Tatiana Leite, Thekla Reuten and Farid Tabarki.
Last year’s winner of IFFR’s Tiger competition was Indian filmmaker Vinothraj P.S.’s Pebbles, which was the country’s contender for this year’s International Oscar race, though didn’t make the shortlist.
Today, the festival also confirmed the line-ups for its Big Screen Competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular and arthouse cinema. Titles selected range from Romania to France and South Africa. The Tiger Short Competition was also unveiled.
The selection is typically globe-trotting, with features ranging from Chile to China, Sweden to Israel, and Mexico to India. A jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, plus two special jury awards. On the jury are: Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Gust Van den Berghe, Tatiana Leite, Thekla Reuten and Farid Tabarki.
Last year’s winner of IFFR’s Tiger competition was Indian filmmaker Vinothraj P.S.’s Pebbles, which was the country’s contender for this year’s International Oscar race, though didn’t make the shortlist.
Today, the festival also confirmed the line-ups for its Big Screen Competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular and arthouse cinema. Titles selected range from Romania to France and South Africa. The Tiger Short Competition was also unveiled.
- 1/7/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s “Assault” and “Kung Fu Zohra” from Mabrouk El Mechri are among the lineup at International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) 51st edition.
The films were among 10 features selected for the Big Screen competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema.
IFFR also boasts the Tiger Competition for emerging talent and Ammodo Tiger Short competition for shorts.
Among the 14 titles selected for the Tiger Competition, Roberto Doveris will present “Proyecto Fantasma,” Morgane Dziurla-Petit will deliver “Excess Will Save Us” and David Easteal will show “The Plains.”
The festival, whose full lineup was announced on Friday, will run as a virtual festival on IFFR.com from Jan 26-Feb. 6 for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic revealed that the lockdown in the Netherlands had enforced some changes in previously announced elements of the program. For example,...
The films were among 10 features selected for the Big Screen competition, which aims to bridge the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema.
IFFR also boasts the Tiger Competition for emerging talent and Ammodo Tiger Short competition for shorts.
Among the 14 titles selected for the Tiger Competition, Roberto Doveris will present “Proyecto Fantasma,” Morgane Dziurla-Petit will deliver “Excess Will Save Us” and David Easteal will show “The Plains.”
The festival, whose full lineup was announced on Friday, will run as a virtual festival on IFFR.com from Jan 26-Feb. 6 for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic revealed that the lockdown in the Netherlands had enforced some changes in previously announced elements of the program. For example,...
- 1/7/2022
- by K.J. Yossman and Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
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